BATON ROUGE - In an effort to save money in a shrinking budget, Baton Rouge Police announced they are disbanding the mounted patrol division. 

The move is expected to save the department about $50,000. 

BRPD Chief TJ Morse told The Advocate that the department already understaffed the mounted patrol division and it was hard to justify assigning more officers to the small unit. 

The department saved an additional $400,000 by discontinuing the ShotSpotter program. The horses in the unit have been retired and will live out the rest of their lives with their former partners.